DAILY NEWS: Sundance 2003 Slate and Weekend Box Office

>> The Waiting is Over as Sundance Unveils First Group of 2003 Festival Films

(indieWIRE: 12.03.02) — The countdown to Park City 2003 kicked off inearnest yesterday as the Sundance Institute announced portions of the lineupfor the 2003 Sundance Film Festival (the lists are available now in theirentirety on indieWIRE.com). Set for January 16 – 26, the festival will offerapproximately 120 features this year. Organizers unveiled lists for thedramatic and documentary sections, as well as films set to screen in theAmerican Spectrum and American Showcase sections. To be unveiled latertoday (Tuesday) are the Premiere, Park City at Midnight, World Cinema, andnew World Documentary sections (those lists will be posted on indieWIRE.comat 7 p.m. ET this evening). The shorts lineup will be released next week.

Feature submissions were up sharply this year, as programmers received 2,012films for consideration (up from 1,740 last year). A total of 832 dramaticfeatures were sent in for the 2003 fest, up from 750 last year (and on parwith the 860 film plateau received the previous year). In the doc category,the numbers continue to grow. There were 537 submissions for the competition,up from 440 last year. More numbers will be included in tomorrow’s report.

The 2003 Dramatic Competition section features a number of films fromtop Indiewood producers. Sony Pictures Classics will make a rarecompetition showing with “All the Real Girls,” writer-director David GordonGreen‘s follow-up to his critically acclaimed debut “George Washington.”Killer Films will represent with two co-productions: Todd Graff‘s “Camp,” a summer camp musical comedy co-produced by IFC Films, and Fenton Bailey and Randy Barbato‘s “Party Monster,” which stars Macualay Culkin as the infamous real-life New York club kid-turned-killer Michael Alig. “Party Monster” was co-produced by Ed Pressman and John Schmidt‘s ContentFilm, which makes a second appearance in the competition line-up with Wayne Kramer‘s “The Cooler,” a story about an Ivy League-educated man who’s hired by the mob to re-vamp its casino operations. The film stars William H. Macy and Alec Baldwin.

Top New York DV outfit InDigEnt will return to Sundance following itstriumphant 2002 with Peter Hedges‘ “Pieces of April,” a story about afamily’s Thanksgiving dinner starring Katie Holmes, Oliver Platt, and theubiquitous Patricia Clarkson. From the former Good Machine comes “American Splendor” by Shari Springer and Robert Pulcini (“The Last Days of Chasens“). That film, set to air on HBO, illustrates the life of notable comic book figure Harvey Pekar. Other competition selections include “The Technical Writer,” the new film from Scott Saunders, who in 1998 won the Someone to Watch prize at the Independent Spirit Awards for his film “The Headhunter’s Sister,” and “The Mudge Boy,” the debut feature from writer-director Michael Burke, who in 1999 took home numerous prizes (including a Sundance special jury prize) for his short film “Fishbelly White.” His film is produced in part by actor and director Stanley Tucci.

In the documentary competition, a number of seasoned non-fiction filmmakersare represented. Steve James (“Hoop Dreams“) will bring his acclaimed“Stevie” (acquired by Lions Gate at the Toronto Film Festival), a look at the life of troubled man who the filmmaker once mentored, while StanleyNelson (“The Black Press: Soldiers Without Swords“) presents “The Murder of Emmett Till,” an examination of the 1955 Southern murder of a young black boy. Robb Moss explores the lives of five river guides over several decadesin “The Same River Twice.” Among the filmmaking newcomers is AndrewJarecki, best known to cinephiles as the “Moviefone guy.” Jarecki directed“Capturing the Friedmans,” a look at a family indicted of sex crimes againstchildren. Also in competition are filmmakers Sam Green and Bill Siegel with their long-in-the-works “The Weather Underground,” a doc about the famedradical activists. Finally, the Independent Film Channel will unveil its majorsurvey of 1970s filmmaking, “A Decade Under the Influence” by Richard LaGravenese and the late Ted Demme. Told through interviews with countlessfilmmakers who shaped the decade, the doc will screen in a shorter versionthat will debut in theaters next year. A longer three-part series will airon IFC in August, while a DVD and book will round out the package.

The six-film American Showcase section, which screens higher-profile workfrom established filmmakers (or well-known first-timers), includes severaltitles that are already well into their festival run. Lisa Cholodenko‘s“Laurel Canyon,” the follow-up to her 1997 Sundance award-winner “High Art,” screened in the Director’s Fortnight at Cannes and in Toronto this year (itwill be released next year by Sony Classics); “Raising Victor Vargas,” thedebut feature from Sundance darling Peter Sollett (who won the prize forbest short in 1999 with “Five Feet High and Rising“), screened in Cannes’ UnCertain Regard program and in Toronto (it will be released by SamuelGoldwyn/Fireworks next spring); Matt Dillon‘s directorial debut “City ofGhosts,” a crime movie set in Cambodia, also screened at Toronto (it will bereleased by United Artists). The Showcase section also includes a controversialhit from Toronto 2001: Gregor Jordan‘s “Buffalo Soldiers.” The Good Machine project, which tells the stories of corrupt U.S. soldiers stationed in WestGermany during the fall of the Berlin Wall, was picked up by Miramax after itsscreening on September 10, 2001 and then quickly shelved after the terroristattacks. Rounding out the Showcase are two directorial debuts: Salma Hayek’s“The Maldonado Miracle” from Showtime and “Normal,” by acclaimed television writer Jane Anderson, from HBO.

Eleven films will screen in this year’s American Spectrum program. JoeMaggio, whose “Virgil Bliss” screened at Slamdance 2001 and subsequently enjoyed a theatrical release this year, will return to Park City with “Milkand Honey,” a film about the lives of strangers who meet over the course ofone night in New York. Jennifer Dworkin will screen “Love and Diane,” theonly U.S. documentary selected for the 2002 New York Film Festival. “HappyTexas” director Mark Illsley will return to Sundance with “Bookies,” which stars Nick Stahl, Johnny Galecki, and Lukas Haas as small-time college bookies who get involved with the mafia. Other Spectrum selections include“Civil Brand,” a tale about black women in prison by well-known TV directorNeema Barnette, and “Born Rich,” a documentary about filthy rich New York socialites by Johnson & Johnson scion Jamie Johnson. [Eugene Hernandezand Matthew Ross]

[The remainder of the 2003 Sundance Film Festival feature lineup will beannounced tomorrow at 7 p.m. ET on indieWIRE.com. We will also publishcomments from our conversation yesterday with Sundance’s Geoff Gilmoreand John Cooper.]

>> Noyce Scores with Two Releases while Spanish-Language Films Continue to Cash In

(indieWIRE: 12.03.02) — Theaters in New York and L.A. screened two films byAustralian director Phillip Noyce over the weekend, as Miramax opened his latest “Rabbit-Proof Fence” in nine theaters earning $88,352 over theweekend beginning Friday. That represents a a $9,817 per-screen average.The New York-based distributor also concluded a two-week Academy qualifyingrun of Noyce’s controversial “The Quiet American” starring Sir MichaelCaine, grossing $111,193 on six screens for a still impressive $18,532per-screen average in the film’s third week, with a $271,648 cume.Newspapers in the U.S. and overseas reported this week that “The QuietAmerican” novelist Graham Greene has been investigated by the U.S.government for more than 40 years for his alleged anti-American bias.

Pedro Almodovar‘s latest reigned brightly in New York going into its secondFriday to Sunday weekend. “Hable con Ella” (Talk to Her) took in $93,223 ontwo Manhattan screens for the Sony Pictures Classics release, bringing thetotal to $266,331 with a sky-high per-screen average of $46,611. Meanwhile,fellow Spanish-language drama “El Crimen del Padre Amaro” (The Crime ofFather Amaro) went into its third weekend (Friday through Sunday) earningthe Samuel Goldwyn film $702,665 on 108 screens for a $6,506 per-screenaverage and a new total of more than $2.5 million.

“Personal Velocity,” the story of three women directed by Rebecca Millertook in $46,221 on five screens for its second three-day weekend stint, fora total of $95,859. The United Artists release had a $9,244 per-screenaverage. [Brian Brooks]